Sucker rod guide



June 24,- 1952 v C-T.WE1R 2,601,478

SUCKER ROD GUIDE Filed Juli; 16, 1946 1 char/hr. Weir Patented June 24,1952

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SUCKER ROD GUIDE Charlie T. Weir, Refugio, Tex.

Application July 16, 1946, Serial No. 683,898

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to a sucker rod guide.

An object of the invention is to provide a guide for deep well pump sucker rods which will keep the sucker rods centered in the pump tubing and which is equipped with bearings, mounted in the guide, that will reduce the friction between the guide and the tubing.

Fluid from wells, particularly deep oil wells, is often produced by means of deep well pumps which are lowered into the well on a string of tubing. These pumps are reciprocated from the ground surface by means of sucker rods. In most cases the well bore is not straight and the tubing, when lowered into the well, must follow the course of the well bore and therefore the sucker rod comes into frictional contact with the tubing in the course of the operation of the pump and often wears a hole, or holes, through the tubing which will reduce or completely destroy the effectiveness of the pump and, in addition, the sucker rod couplings may become weakened from wear, due to said friction causing the rod to separate.

The guide herein described greatly reduces such wear.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a, novel type of guide which may be spaced along the sucker rod at selected places so as to reduce the frictional contact of the sucker rod with the pump tubing.

With the above and other objects in view the invention has particular relation to certain novel features of construction, arrangement of parts and use, an example of which is given in this specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure l is a side View of the guide in a pump tubing and shown partly in section;

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the guide taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view, taken along the line 3--3 of Figure 1 looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings wherein like numerals of reference designate the same parts in each of the figures, the numeral 1 designates a section of the sucker rod. At its lower end this sucker rod section is formed with an internally threaded box 2 and at its upper end it is formed with an externally threaded pin 3.

There is a coupling member 4 adapted to connect the adjacent ends of the sucker rod sections. The lower end of this coupling member is formed into an internally threaded box 5 to receive the pin 3 and the upper end of the coupling member 4 is formed with an externally threaded pin 6 adapted to be screwed in to the box 2 of the sucker rod section above.

Screwed onto the pin 6 between the coupling 6 and the box 2 there is a retainer 1.

The coupling 4 is provided with external longitudinal grooves 8 which enlarge, or increase the capacity of, the liquid passageway about the coupling so as to allow the free flow of liquid up past the coupling and these grooves continue on up in the external surface of the retainer I.

Between the grooves 8 there are the longitudinal ball races 9 in the external surface of the coupling. Five of these races are shown. They are provided to receive corresponding series of anti-friction balls [0 which are retained therein by the retainer 1. As will best be seen from an inspection of Figures 1 and 3, the retainer 7 has a plurality of grooves 8' like the grooves 8 of the coupling 4, which may be brought into registration with the grooves 8 and races 9 of the coupling 4. The grooves 8', however, are of lesser depth than the races 9, so that the retainer prevents the bearing balls from leaving the races.

These balls project out slightly beyond the surface of the coupling, as more clearly shown in Figure 2, and as the sucker rod is reciprocated up and down they will contact with the inner wall of the tubing and maintain the coupling spaced from the tubing and they will also reduce the wear on the tubing and prevent wear on the sucker rod coupling.

The drawings and description are illustrative merely while the broad principle of the invention will be defined by the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A sucker rod guide comprising, a coupling, means at the ends of the coupling providing for the connection of sucker rod sections thereto, said coupling having external longitudinal ball races spaced apart therearound and having continuous longitudinal grooves from end to end thereof between the races, bearing balls in the races which extend out beyond the periphery of the coupling adapted to make contact with a pump tubing during the reciprocation of the sucker rod and to hold the rod substantially centered relative to the tubing, a retainer on one end of the coupling for retaining the bearing balls in the races, said retainer having external longitudinal grooves corresponding to the grooves in the coupling and adapted to be brought into alignment therewith to provide continuous passages for the flow of fluid past the coupling.

2. A sucker rod guide comprising, a coupling REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

Number said retainer and extending out beyond the 10 5 ,3

periphery of the coupling.

CHARLIE T. WEIR.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Black Jan. 26, 1892 Black Nov. 4, 1902 Neal Aug. 31, 1915 Smith Nov. 25, 1924 Jones et al. Apr. 5, 1927 

